The Swift Current Broncos are now up to seven straight victories after a 7-5 win over the Red Deer Rebels on Friday night to open up a two-game Alberta road swing.
The Broncos got contributions from a number of players tonight, which started with Mathew Ward’s 15th goal of the season on great set up by Rylan Gould just over two minutes into the hockey game. Josh Filmon made it 2-0 shortly thereafter with a hard drive to the net for his 25th. It seemed like it was going to be all Broncos, but the Rebels had other ideas as they tied the game with goals from Frantisek Formanek and Luke Vlooskwyk. Luke Mistelbacher would restore the Broncos lead with less than five minutes to play in the first. The Broncos wouldn’t give up the lead after that as a Connor Hvidston powerplay goal made it 4-2 late in the first.
The Rebels got as close as one goal on two occasions as they made it 4-3 early in the second, and 6-5 late in the third before Rylan Gould’s empty net goal. Luke Mistelbacher scored again later in the contest, while Conor Geekie scored the other Broncos goal in the contest as they grabbed the 7-5 win.
Broncos forward Clarke Caswell had three assists in the victory and said the team was really working hard for their offence in the game.
“We were just moving our feet, not holding on to pucks, but moving them,” Caswell said. “Just creating those chances through hard work.”
The Broncos powerplay was 2-for-4 in the contest, and the penalty kill was 3-for-3 which included a five-minute-major to Ryan McCleary in the second period.
While it was first time since February 3rd (nine games) since the Broncos gave up five or more goals in a game, Caswell said they just need to tidy up a few things defensively.
“I think we can clean that up going into tomorrow against Edmonton,” he said. “But I thought we clogged things up pretty good and moving forward we’ll just tidy those things up a little bit.”
Reid Dyck stopped 33 of 38 in his 100th career WHL game, earning his 20th win of the season, the first time he’s done that in his WHL career.
The Broncos visit the Edmonton Oil Kings on Saturday.